A thoughtful reflection on religion in Star Trek. While Humans aren’t depicted as participating in any form of organized religion (there is a reference to a Christmas party here, a nod to monotheism there), the series also includes a distrust of science and technology, regularly depicting mad scientists, societies over-dependent on technology, etc.) that insists…
If you’re legally present on a public street or sidewalk, you can legally photograph anything in plain view. (This includes children and crime victims… but just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea.) If law enforcement engages you, ask whether you are free to go; if so, then move out of the…
Standardized testing rewards standardized thinking, while excluding creativity, resilience & other “soft” skills. I have started gong out of my way to remind students in my classes that I am not comparing their papers to a “correct answer” in the back of my book — I want them to learn a habit of mind that…
It’s a good day when one’s nerdiness is an asset to a colleague. Similar:A selfie with a Chekov action figure after learning of Anton Yelchin's deathCurrent_EventsMy dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it's not Orwell, he warned, it's Brave New WorldAs my father [Neil Postman] pointed out,…BooksLooking forward towards the wardroom (center) and the officers'…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:The President Versus ‘Fake News,’ AgainBret Stephens of the NYTimes says by acc…CultureFather David Hudgins RIP | In His Own Words My friend from high school passed away…DramaKitchen utensils for my steampunk villain's hideout. #Blender3D. There’s nothing particularly steampu…AestheticsCarolyn portrays Maria in West Side Story, Aug 9-12. #ifeelpretty…
Keep a local backup of anything important you’ve entrusted to online services. There’s no guarantee that, years from now, those services will honor the terms you agreed to. Backed by new investors, including singer Justin Timberlake, Myspace (after dropping the capital ‘S’) has been rebranded as a music-streaming service, with a new sleek interface, and…
Penn and Teller are involved with this story. Worth a read. The only record of the game’s existence was a handful of review copies that had been sent out to journalists in the weeks before the publisher went bust, in 1995. The game remained a curious rumor until September, 2005, when Frank Cifaldi, a freelance…
Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices. #ethics #books The Federal lawsuit claimed that Apple, led by then-CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, conspired with HarperCollins, Hatchett, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to drive e-book prices up from the $9.99 price point Amazon had established. –readwrite.com Similar:When it…
RT @spj_tweets: How TV could suffer the fate of newspapers: @alanmutter shares the second installment of his two-part blog – http://t.co/l… Similar:RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from the Civil…RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from …TweetsClassroom collaboration marketplaceWhile I am uncomfortable with the whole …BusinessI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is…
RT @DepressedDarth: Dear J.J. Abrams, If the new Star Wars is bad, you will forever be known as Jar Jar Abrams. Sincerely, Star Wars fans Similar:The Whole Internet Hates MeAmusingShe was a musical ingenue Sunday, filmed a slasher movie past midnight Monday, and was pre…AcademiaLanguage Log » 25 Questions for Teaching with "Word Crimes"A little…
I really like MailChimp’s “Social” plugin, which not only publishes a WordPress blog entry to Twitter and Facebook, but also collects responses from Twitter and Facebook users and collects them as WordPress comments. Today I installed a different plugin, Twitter Tools, which is really just a single tool — it lets you create a WordPress…
Habits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of life. At bedtime, in order to avoid a nightly litany of complaints, I ask my glass-is-half-empty-and-I-hate-the-pirate-glass-and-there’s-a-bug-in-it tween to list three good things, two neutral things, and one sad thing about her day. Sometimes if she needs to share more than one sad thing, I…
While researching my obligations for #juryduty Thursday, I came across this “Juror’s Creed.” The gender-specific reference to men, the instruction to reflect upon the virtues of democracy, and the instruction to respect the judge’s education all hint at a historical context for the creed. Institutions never put their creeds into writing unless they feel those…
Spent a productive work day doing nothing but optimizing my blog. Added a very nice plugin for displaying thumbnails of related posts. Similar:Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing AssignmentsIt does take longer to evaluate student …Academia15 more sites that forbid you from linking to them » Malcolm ColesSome people…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the… Imagine a society that engineers its…Culture#PPTPlaytime adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.Top — nonverbal addition with Jessica an…DramaGoogle's AI could probably beat you at AtariWhat’s significant…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Mesmerizing Video of a Printer Terminal Running "Adventure" on a PDP-11/45After spending several days clicking but…AcademiaURL Hacking (new graphic for an older page that’s surprisingly popular on my site)CybercultureWikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wants new Facebook feature to burst 'filter bubble'It’s extremely important to understand w…CybercultureSTEM…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:Seeing A Wrinkle in Time. @prime_stagePersonalJust a #neovictorian avatar in spats and a tailcoat, checking out the back porch and bridg… AestheticsMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig at art camp. Next…
While I am uncomfortable with the whole “classroom as marketplace” metaphor, since it’s pretty much gamifying without the fun, I am nonetheless interested in this strategy for encouraging students to collaborate by having them attach a value to the artifacts they present to the class for sharing.. We shop for everything from apps to ideas.…
The researchers found that each singer’s heartbeat was linked to the song’s melody – i.e. the speed and structure of the music. They also found that when the choir sang together, their heart rates tended to increase and decrease at similar times. “As soon as the singing begins, (the hearts) start following each other,” Vickhoff…
We live in an elegant universe. The cosmos is like a string symphony. Genes are selfish. There is an endless battle between thermodynamics and gravity. Do you love these statements, or hate them? The reading world gets pretty divided over whether or not it’s okay to apply metaphors and similes to descriptive science writing. It…